Umapathi Chivachchariyar

This great shaivite philosopher came in the tradition of the priests of thillai in chithambaram in thamiz land. He was a well learnt scholar in both Samskritam as well as thamiz. The chOza king realising his scholarhood gave him pearl palanquin, a drum band to go around him and a day torch light. In one of the days of the month vaikAsi he was returning after worshiping the Dancing Lord. That time the great shaiva sidhdhanthic philosopher maRaigyAnasamabandhar(1) was teaching his students the splendid philosophy. One of his students informed him about the passing of umApati shivAchchAriyar by the street. Then the teacher of sidhdhanthic wisdom remarked patta kattaiyil pagaRkurudan pOgiRAn pArungaL (On the dead wood goes there the day-blind, see!). These words kindled the thoughts of umApathi shivAchchAriyAr who was eagerly looking for a philosophical guide. He fell on the feet of maRaigyAna sambandhar. The later to accepted him as his disciple considering his maturity.

There happened one day an event that exhibited the marvelous devotion he had for his guru maRaigyAnasambandhar. They were walking across the weavers' street. The master maRaigyanasambandhar took from one of them the cellulose (kanychi) kept for the cloths and drank it. While he was drinking it, some of it dripped through his elbow. The ardant disciple umApathi chivAchchAriyAr drank that, which was dripping through the master's elbow. Everybody was surprised to see this devotion on guru. The priests of thillai excommunicated him from the priestly community since he drank the remains of what maRaigyAnasambandhar drank, as it is considered against the discipline of priestly people. From then on he started living outside thillai in a place called koRRavan kudi.

Like the deed of the Supreme Grace, Which gave a letter addressed to the king chEramAn perumAL(2) for the benefit of the devotee pANa baththiar, the Dancing Lord gave a letter addressed to this devotee for peRRAn chAmbAn asking him to initiate peRRan sAmbAn and liberate him. The devotee taking the order of the Lord on his head, gave peRRAn sAmbAn mukthi. Later in the presence of peRRAn chAmbAn's wife and the king, he also gave mukthi to a muLLi plant. Once in the temple flag hoisting festival, when the flag was not rising, he sang kodikkavi and made it rise on the pole.

This scholarly philosopher has written many sidhdhanthic scriptures. he has written eight of the fourteen reverand sidhdhanthic texts. They are

chivappirakAcham

thiruvarutpayan

vinA veNpA

pORRip paqRodai

kodikkavi

n^enychu vidu thUdhu

uNmai n^eRi viLakkam (There is an opinion that this is not this authors work.)

chaN^kaRpa n^irAkaraNam

Apart from these he has written thamiz books (These indicate the high reverance this devotee had on thirumuRais)

kOyil purANam

thirumuRai kaNda purANam

thiruththoNdar purANa varalARu

thiruththoNdar purANa chAram

chEkkizAr purANam

thiruppadhik kOvai

thiruppadhikak kOvai

thEvAra aruLmuRaith thiraTTu

nyAna AchAra sAththira panychakam

He has also written commentary in saMskRitam for the paushkarAgamam. Hailing the enchanting dance fo the Supreme Lord at thiruththillai he has composed two works in sanskrit namely naTarAja dvani mantra sthava and kuJNchitAghri sthavam.
From the verses of the chaNkaRpa nirAkaraNam, he has written it is found that his period was 14th century.